SDSU's Confucius Institute gets $1 million grant to expand

Mandarin magnet program also honored for its work

Students were all smiles at Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School in Point Loma, as they watched one of the lions from Three Treasures Lion Dancers perform at a Chinese New Year celebration in February.
— Howard Lipin / U-T San Diego

Students were all smiles at Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School in Point Loma, as they watched one of the lions from Three Treasures Lion Dancers perform at a Chinese New Year celebration in February.
— Howard Lipin / U-T San Diego

A San Diego State University center that promotes Chinese language and culture will receive a $1 million grant to expand operations after it was selected for funding as one of eight “model” Confucius Institutes.

A Mandarin-magnet school supported by the institute, Barnard Elementary in San Diego, also learned last month that it was named one of the four top Confucius classrooms out of more than 530 such classrooms worldwide.

The school was honored at the annual Global Confucius Institute Conference in Beijing, which was sponsored by the Office of Chinese Language International Council or Hanban, an institution affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education.

The council has established Confucius Institutes in more than 100 countries since 2004, with the goal of enhancing the understanding of Chinese language and culture among foreigners and developing friendly relations between China and other countries. It is providing the $1 million grant to the institute at SDSU.

University officials said they were pleased by the recognition, which comes almost four years after the institute was established at San Diego State.

“The world in which our students will be living and working will be increasingly international,” SDSU Provost Nancy Marlin said in a statement. “Our Confucius Institute enables us to help prepare our students and students from many local schools in learning Chinese language and about Chinese culture.”

The institute has worked as a partner with Barnard, bringing cultural resources such as visiting Chinese performers to the campus and helping the school’s teachers travel to China for professional development.

Barnard, also known as Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School, is a California Distinguished School. It was one of only two programs in the United States to be recognized at the Beijing conference.

Lilly Cheng, managing director of SDSU’s Confucius Institute, said the new honor for Barnard is significant.

“I think that is so precious because that school is so exemplary,” Cheng said. “The students there are multilingual, multitalented and they achieve so well.”

Edward Park, Barnard’s principal, said the recognition means the school is one of the best Mandarin programs in the world.

“We turned this school completely around,” Park said. “This is a huge honor, thanks to many of our partners in education and our teachers obviously, and our parents.”

In addition to providing training for teachers in Chinese language and culture in San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles and Imperial counties, the institute sponsors activities such as Asian film and heritage festivals and provides speakers to go into schools.

Cheng said training programs vary. Physical education teachers can take a course lasting a day or two that shows them how to include traditional Chinese sports — such as martial arts and ping-pong — in their curriculum. Arts teachers learn how to do mask painting, tie knots and make Chinese lanterns. World history teachers are taught about calligraphy.

Teachers who instruct in Mandarin also are provided ideas and curriculum to work with students.

The institute has an academic partnership with Xiamen University, which sends instructors and researchers to work with staff and volunteers at San Diego State. Cheng said the institute’s work is funded by grants from Hanban as well as gifts from community donors and funding from SDSU.